Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani have been one of the hottest women’s doubles teams of the summer, but on Thursday night they found themselves on opposite sides of Court 12 as they faced off in mixed doubles. Dabrowski and Marcus Daniell rallied from an early deficit to oust No. 4 seeds Stefani and Marcelo Melo, 7-5, 6-7(3), [11-9], and book a place in the second round.
Dabrowski and Stefani had instant success after kicking off their new partnership in August. The pair reached three finals across the US Open Series, lifting their first trophy as a team in Montreal and appearing in the San Jose and Cincinnati finals.
The pair knew each other’s games inside and out, and as a result the match featured plenty of momentum shifts and not much to separate the teams as they battled for an hour and 45 minutes. Dabrowski and Daniell recovered from a 0-3 deficit to take the first set 7-5, but were edged out of the second set in a tight tiebreak.
The fourth seeds saved two match points in the Match Tiebreak as Melo reeled off some spectacular backhands. But they couldn’t hold back their opponents a third time, and Dabrowski and Daniell claimed victory to move on at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
After the hardfought encounter, Dabrowski and Stefani shared a hug at the net. The pair are still contesting the women’s doubles event, and they comfortably won past Viktoria Golubic and Tamara Zidansek in straight sets earlier in the day.
Also through in mixed doubles, No. 8 seeds Demi Schuurs and Sander Gille took down American wildcards Elvina Kalieva and Bruno Kuzuhara, 6-4, 6-3, while Sachia Vickery and Nathan Pasha won an all-American clash against Reese Brantmeier and Nicholas Monroe, 4-6, 7-5, 13-11.
